Tag Archive | World View

College seems to be pushed as the ultimate cap to childhood. Children have not grown up until they have gone to college for a few years and gotten a degree. But what is the purpose of college?

Is the goal of college a well rounded education?

Is college just an extension of the teen years, more freedom and less demands?

Is the goal of college to be able to make more money than flipping burgers at McDonalds?

Is college for finding a spouse?

Is college an extension of the high school sports playing?

Is college for receiving a degree and a piece of paper to hang on the wall?

Is college required in order to obtain the necessary credentials for a chosen career path?

Is having a college degree a matter of pride, a notch in your belt, which says you are important?

Have you really sat down and contemplated why or if your child should attend college?

Cannot many of the reasons for college be met in different ways with much less expense?

See when I was a young mother one of the first things others stressed is that you shouldn’t have too many children, nor have them too close together, because then how would you be able to afford college. Honestly, the issue was of a little concern then, but not something I stressed about, now I know that the Lord will provide for ALL our needs. We even at one time signed up for the PACT (Prepaid Affordable College Tuition) college funding available in our state, which is now defaulting. After signing the papers with a salesman who came to our home, we had 30 days to review the papers before it was final. But upon closer reading we found that what we were going to have to pay would be so limited in what we could do with it and really it was only a savings account regulated by the government. It wouldn’t cover out of state schools, had problems if we moved across state lines, and was really restricted if my preschooler at the time was not intending to go to college upon graduation. We dropped that and haven’t regretted it at all. Especially after the issue our state has had this past year with PACT funding for colleges, the year our oldest was eligible.

Throughout high school we were not only encouraged to attend college but we were seriously recruited from the colleges. We were taught that anybody worth anything would attend college. Only those who desired to be live in poverty or live off the government wouldn’t attend college and get a good supporting career (only possible with a degree supposedly). But is that true? No, it isn’t true at all. That is just one of the many lies the public school system will strive to convince students.

Another lie that is fostered by the college mentality is that young people should finish college before getting married. Only red-necks and country bumpkins got married right out of high school; intelligent people waited until after college. It didn’t matter if you had been dating the same person for three or four years during high school (courtship and not dating weren’t popular then); you still needed to wait until you graduated from college. College was more important than marriage. Need I point out the issues this causes!

So one of the first things for parents to determine is what prominence a college education holds in the life of their family. Is it a requirement or it is dependent on the actual career choices of the child? What if your son desires to do carpentry? What if your daughter just desires to be a homemaker? Now of course if your other son feels called to be a surgeon he will have a decade of college ahead of him. But will one be more highly favored just due to the college education?

Must mothers give up being home with their children in order to pay the outlandish prices for a college education? Which will have more influence on a child, eighteen years of an available mother or four years of college?

Is the Lord more concerned with the externals of a college education or with the internals of the heart?

They are convicted that the Lord would not have His children educated by the government (Caesar) so they work to afford private Christian schooling for their children.From the outward appearance, this might not seem like such a big deal, especially if the mom is free when the children are out of school.

There are several considerations that must be given to this decision.

1) First all Christian schools are not the same.There are some that are no different from any other private school.Often a Christian School may even use the typical curriculum and just add in a Bible Class.The really good Christian schools tend to very expensive and/or small and hard to get into.Often they are both!One of the best Christian schools in Birmingham had such a long waiting list that once your baby was born you needed to call about being put on the list.See good schools limit the teacher / student ratio so as to insure a better quality education.

There are other Christian schools that really work like a group homeschool.The students use a homeschool like curriculum and teachers are just available to help if needed but not actually teaching.That is a lot of money to pay for something you can do better yourself.

2) One matter that using a Christian school does not solve is peer pressure and the influence of peers.See just because the school itself might be very high quality that does not mean that the home life of the children is any different.As we found, even children from church, regular church member’s children can share much more information than we would desire with our children.I remember a 5 year old several years ago that was about to explain ‘French kissing’ to some classmates at church.I nipped that in the bud real quick, and shortly thereafter eliminated much of our children’s group activities unless a parent could be right with them.

Christian school teens aren’t necessarily any different than the teens in an average Christian youth group at church.If you don’t realize the issues with many Christian youth groups just volunteer to help teach and supervise the kids for a year.I think then you will be made aware of the problems with grouping large numbers of youth together.

“… I found that most (not all of course) of the students in the Christian schools I attended did not have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. Many had simply learned the art of looking churchy and saying the right things in front of the teachers.

The school I attended in sixth grade only went to eighth grade. Even at that age the students were involved in drug and alcohol use, pornography, satanic heavy metal music, lying, watching R-rated movies, and sexual activity.

Their parents, of course, would have defended them to the death, insisting that they were “good” kids. I don’t mean to imply that this behavior never happens in a homeschool family, but I do believe that homeschooling parents are more likely to know what their children are doing and could at the least keep their children from directly having these kinds of hoodlums as companions and role models….” Continue

3) Another issue is that for some reason students educated in Christian schools often end up with a much lower Biblical worldview than students educated at home. Although Christian school students do end up with a more Biblical worldview than public school children, they fall quite a bit behind those who were homeschooled.

I stayed up way too late last night reading this poem. I was working on a post about homeschooling verses Christian schooling and in my research found this treasure of a poem. This poem was written to a gentleman to convince him to not send his boys to school in 1784! Other than the older English style, this sounds like it could have been written today about our schools.

(I know it is long but actually this is just a portion of the full poem, which can be found here.)

“Tirocinium”

Would you your son should be a sot or dunce,
Lascivious, headstrong, or all these at once;
That in good time the stripling’s finish’d taste
For loose expense and fashionable waste
Should prove your ruin, and his own at last;
Train him in public with a mob of boys,
Childish in mischief only and in noise,
Else of a mannish growth, and five in ten
In infidelity and lewdness men.

…

Ye nurseries of our boys, we owe to you:
Though from ourselves the mischief more proceeds,
For public schools ’tis public folly feeds.
The slaves of custom and establish’d mode,
With packhorse constancy we keep the road,
Crooked or straight, through quags or thorny dells,
True to the jingling of our leader’s bells.
To follow foolish precedents, and wink
With both our eyes, is easier than to think;
And such an age as ours balks no expense,
Except of caution and of common sense;
Else sure notorious fact, and proof so plain,
Would turn our steps into a wiser train.

…

There shall he learn, ere sixteen winters old,
That authors are most useful, pawned or sold,
That pedantry is all that schools impart,
But taverns teach the knowledge of the heart.

…

No nourishment to feed his growing mind,
But conjugated verbs and nouns declined?
For such is all the mental food purvey’d
By public hackneys in the schooling trade;
Who feed a pupil’s intellect with store
Of syntax truly, but with little more;
Dismiss their cares when they dismiss their flock,
Machines themselves, and govern’d by a clock.
Perhaps a father, blest with any brains,
Would deem it no abuse, or waste of pains,
To improve this diet, at no great expense,

…

To show him in an insect or a flower
Such microscopic proof of skill and power
As, hid from ages past, God now displays
To combat atheists with in modern days;
To spread the earth before him, and commend,
With designation of the finger’s end,
Its various parts to his attentive note,
Thus bringing home to him the most remote;
To teach his heart to glow with generous flame,
Caught from the deeds of men of ancient fame;
And, more than all, with commendation due,
To set some living worthy in his view,
Whose fair example may at once inspire
A wish to copy what he must admire.

…

The ostrich, silliest of the feather’d kind,
And form’d of God without a parent’s mind,
Commits her eggs, incautious, to the dust,
Forgetful that the foot may crush the trust;
And, while on public nurseries they rely,
Not knowing, and too oft not caring, why,
Irrational in what they thus prefer,
No few, that would seem wise, resemble her.
But all are not alike. Thy warning voice
May here and there prevent erroneous choice;
And some perhaps, who, busy as they are,
Yet make their progeny their dearest care

…

Now look on him, whose very voice in tone
Just echoes thine, whose features are thine own,
And stroke his polish’d cheek of purest red,
And lay thine hand upon his flaxen head,
And say, My boy, the unwelcome hour is come,
When thou, transplanted from thy genial home,
Must find a colder soil and bleaker air,
And trust for safety to a stranger’s care;
What character, what turn thou wilt assume
From constant converse with I know not whom;
Who there will court thy friendship, with what views,
And, artless as thou art, whom thou wilt choose;
Though much depends on what thy choice shall be,
Is all chance-medley, and unknown to me.
Canst thou, the tear just trembling on thy lids,
And while the dreadful risk foreseen forbids;
Free too, and under no constraining force,
Unless the sway of custom warp thy course;
Lay such a stake upon the losing side,
Merely to gratify so blind a guide?
Thou canst not Nature, pulling at thine heart,
Condemns the unfatherly, the imprudent part.

…

Though wouldst not, deaf to Nature’s tenderest plea,
Turn him adrift upon a rolling sea,
Nor say, Go thither, conscious that there lay
A brood of asps, or quicksands in his way;
Then, only govern’d by the self-same rule
Of natural pity, send him not to school.
No—guard him better. Is he not thine own,
Thyself in miniature, thy flesh, thy bone?
And hopest thou not (’tis every father’s hope)
That, since thy strength must with thy years elope,
And thou wilt need some comfort to assuage
Health’s last farewell, a staff of thine old age,
That then, in recompence of all thy cares,
Thy child shall show respect to thy grey hairs,

…

Survey our schools and colleges, and see
A sight not much unlike my simile.
From education, as the leading cause,
The public character its colour draws;
Thence the prevailing manners take their cast,
Extravagant or sober, loose or chaste.

Dr. Tim Coleman is a Birmingham Meteorologist, with a PhD degree in atmospheric science. This is an article of his from the news weather blog. I can not even pretend that I understood all the article and the charts and graphs but I did find the information interesting and contrary to the typical “Global Warming” hype.

… Many climate models, similar in some ways to numerical weather prediction models like the GFS, are run to predict the future climate and its effects on rainfall patterns, local temperatures, and even biological cycles. However, we know how inaccurate our weather prediction models are at times! And, IPCC model-based temperature projections from 2000-2009 are apparently wrong. …

Also, as pointed out by Alabama State Climatologist John Christy in his response to EPA assertions (for his report, click here.), running the IPCC models for the past 30 years shows that they greatly overpredict warming. Christy states “the models overstate the warming that has occurred. The clear implication of this result is that the models have an assumed sensitivity to CO2 that the real world does not.” Christy points out that the big model weakness is cloud cover. Climate models indicate that increasing CO2 causes a decrease in clouds, further warming the earth in a positive feedback. Actually, Roy Spencer of UAH has found that warming the earth increases clouds, so the earth has its own “thermostat” to cool things down if it warms. …

“The woman’s movement wasn’t about happiness.” That judgment, attributed to feminist Susan Faludi, seems to be the blunt assessment shared by many other women. As numerous recent studies now indicate, a remarkably large percentage of women describe themselves as increasingly unhappy.

This issue came to light last month in a fascinating essay by Maureen Dowd of The New York Times. Dowd, whose columns often reveal the nation’s Zeitgeist, cited the fact that a number of major studies indicate that “women are getting gloomier and men are getting happier.” She asked: “Did the feminist revolution end up benefiting men more than women?”

We will always be unhappy when we disregard the Bible and God’s plans for us. Feminism disregards both and elevates women above all others; men, husband, children. It’s focus is on self and not on honoring Christ.

The world looks for happiness through self-assertion. The Christian knows that joy is found in self-abandonment. “If a man will let himself be lost for My sake,” Jesus said, “he will find his true self.” A Christian woman’s true freedom lies on the other side of a very small gate-humble obedience-but that gate leads out into a largeness of life undreamed of by the liberators of the world, to a place where the God-given differentiation between the sexes is not obfuscated but celebrated, where our inequalities are seen as essential to the image of God, for it is in male and female, in male as male and female as female, not as two identical and interchangeable halves, that the image is manifested.

Feminism is not focused on bettering the treatment of women contrary to what many women believe. Feminism’s goal is to not to improve the woman’s lot in life but to allow the woman to be in charge of her life. First the parents have their authority eroded by feminism. Then husband’s had their authority and leadership eroded. But the ultimate goal is to remove all authority over women and their choices. Feminism will not be happy until they think they are totally free of any authority God might have over their life.

Feminism asserts that woman’s worth is of such a nature that it gives her the right to discern, judge, and govern that truth herself. It infuses women with the idea that God’s teaching about the role of women must line up with their own perception and definition of equality and/or liberation. Feminism does not present itself as an outright affront to the Bible, but it nevertheless contains an insidious distortion that erodes the authority of Scripture.

Now that version didn’t sound bad (more different) and actually was somewhat serious. So what can be wrong with putting Amazing Grace to that tune? If you know what the tune is then you might see the conflict. The tune is House Of Rising Sun which is about a house of ill repute.

So does singing Amazing Grace to this tune change the ultimate meaning or give a different message?

… Not all loans are created equal. While credit cards and payday loans are toxic debts that erode your financial security, low-rate mortgages and student loans are generally considered good debt because they help you get ahead. So it’s OK not to rush to pay off those good loans, but you’ll want to attack your credit cards and other high-rate debts. …

If you can find a way to pay your bills, you should.

If you can’t, though, you may need to discuss your situation with an experienced bankruptcy attorney who can review your situation and counsel you about your options, including bankruptcy and foreclosure.

Debt is only “good” if you do not mind slavery.

Proverbs 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender. ESV

Psalms 37:21 The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives; …. ESV

I have notice some rather encouraging news lately from secular media sources. I posted about one Feminism Has Made Women Unhappy where I pointed out feminist are beginning to admit that women are more unhappy than ever. They aren’t ready to give up yet, but they are actually talking about it.

Def.Con. posted about an article in the UK in Working moms. The mother realizes that she was in denial that working and being a mom has downsides and has affected her children. The saddest part of the article is that her oldest daughter still doesn’t see the problems with her mother having worked and missed out on large parts of her life.

Then the news had a comment on the headlines from Jon Gosselin yesterday. Now I’ll admit I don’t know much about him but it seems he has eight children and his family is on TV somewhere. The quote from Gosselin is interesting:

“I really have to be a father here. I can’t be a kid anymore,” he continued. “I have to be a man.”

He really said that? Our young men are deciding to grow up!?! The sad part is that it took divorce proceeding to wake him up.

To me this seems to be encouraging news that the World is getting tired of spinning around in circles pretending they are having fun.

But the really sad news ….

When discussing the problems of feminism, mothers being home with their children and divorce guess who is the most adamantly argumentative.

Christian women!

Cries of Christian “liberty” and “freedom” in Christ abound.

“But the Lord knows my heart.”

“Being home makes me unhappy, I’m a better mother when I’m not home all the time.”

For some strange reason the church seems to lag behind the world by about 10 years. So maybe in ten years more Christian women will begin to see the problems also.

When women stepped into male- dominated realms, they put more demands — and stress — on themselves. If they once judged themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens and dinner parties, now they judge themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens, dinner parties — and grad school, work, office deadlines and meshing a two-career marriage.

“Choice is inherently stressful,” Buckingham said in an interview. “And women are being driven to distraction.”

While the above article is secular and arrives at secular conclusions, what has Scripture told us?

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. ESV

Male and Female, different, not interchangeable nor replaceable by the other.

Genesis 2:7 … the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. ESV

Genesis 2:21-2221 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ESV

Created in totally different manners. Nothing God does is without a purpose. He created man and woman differently for His own purposes.

1 Corinthians 11:8-98 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.
9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. ESV

Maureen Dowd is a very influential cultural voice. She is a feminist. She is highly successful and driven, as evidenced by her weekly column for the Times. She is admitting, in public, that modern women are unhappy. This is essentially an admission-hold your breath here, deep breath-that feminism is not working. Coming from a feminist, that’s astonishing.

…

Modern women would hugely benefit from returning to traditional roles. Their current state of unhappiness, as Dowd characterizes it, is a direct result of the influence of feminism. God did not give us roles as a kind of sexual prison; He gave them to us for our good and flourishing. If we reject this plan, coded into both our design and the Word of God, then we will surely suffer.

Modern women are unhappy. Feminism is not working. It is the call of the church of Jesus Christ to image the kind of happy (though by no means easy) life of the biblical home. We do so not merely as a means of witness, in these strange days, but as a means of rescue.

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First Things First

The most important fact necessary before reading this website is to examine yourself to see if you are a Christian. If you are not a Christian, much of this would be ‘Foolishness’ to you.
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1 Cor 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
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If you are not a Christian then I recommend reading the following:

What is a Berean?

Acts 17:11
"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." NIV

My Purpose

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